1972 Academy Awards® Winners and History "The Godfather" Supporting Actress: EILEEN HECKART in "Butterflies Are Free", Jeannie Berlin in "The Heartbreak Kid", Geraldine Page in "Pete 'n' Tillie", Susan Tyrrell in "Fat City", Shelley Winters in "The Poseidon Adventure" Director: BOB FOSSE for "Cabaret", John Boorman for "Deliverance" , Francis Ford Coppola for "The Godfather" , Joseph L. Mankiewicz for "Sleuth", Jan Troell for "The Emigrants" There was a tremendous incongruity in the 1972 awards between the top two, front-running films: The Godfather (with ten nominations and only three wins) - Best Picture for producer Albert S. Ruddy, Best Actor (Marlon Brando), and Best Screenplay Adaptation (for Mario Puzo and Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant re-working of Puzo's novel).

Paramount's The Godfather told the epic story of the patriarchal, aging figurehead of a 'Mafia' dynasty who also served as 'godfather' to the New York Sicilian immigrants in the late 1940s - one of The Godfather's eleven nominations was removed, Best Music (Original Dramatic Score), when it was determined that Nino Rota's score had been used for a previous film Cabaret (with ten nominations and eight wins) - this film won many more Oscars - but not Best Picture. Cabaret's Oscars were for Best Director (Bob Fosse), Best Actress (Minnelli), Best Supporting Actor (Grey), Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Editing, Best Sound, and Best Scoring. It was a real surprise that The Godfather lost both the Best Director and Best Supporting Actor awards to Cabaret [Cabaret set a record - it had the most Oscar wins of any film without winning the Best Picture award.

A Place in the Sun (1951) and Star Wars (1977) hold second place with six Oscar wins while failing to win Best Picture.] The classic musical-drama that revised the Broadway stage musical Cabaret (based on John Kander's hit musical taken from the Christopher Isherwood stories) was set in 1931 Germany - it used the cabaret night-club in Berlin as a cinematic device to tell the story of two young lovers and the political horrors of the encroaching, surrounding Nazi regime in the pre-World War II era The other three Best Picture nominees included: the English-dubbed The Emigrants (with four nominations and no wins) - the sad tale of impoverished farmers leaving Sweden in the mid 1880s to come to Minnesota for the promise of a better life in America. [The film was also nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film award in 1971. It was the third non-English language film to be nominated for Best Picture.

It also set a record - 1972 was the only year in which a film, The Emigrants (1972) (a Best Picture nominee) and its sequel, The New Land (1972) (Best Foreign Language film nominee) were both nominated] director Martin Ritt's film of William Armstrong's adapted novel, Sounder (with four nominations and no wins) about the struggles of a rural, black sharecropper family in Depression-era Louisiana the exciting action film based on James Dickey's novel, Deliverance (with the fewest number of nominations - only three - and no wins) about a horrific, holiday weekend canoe trip down a southern river for four civilized professional men from Atlanta, who discover primal fear and alienation - and most remembered for its "Dueling Banjos" sequence. Four of the five directors of Best Picture nominees were also nominated for Best Director. The director of Best Picture-nominated Sounder was replaced by Joseph L. Mankiewicz who was nominated as director for Sleuth (with four nominations and no wins).

Mankiewicz' last directed film, an adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's Tony-winning 1970 drama, was an intelligent, twisting, theatrical stage play/mystery and actor's showcase brought to the screen, a rivalry between a wealthy mystery novelist and his wife's hairdresser/lover, his romantic rival. Dancer/choreographer/ and director Bob Fosse (with his first of three career nominations) won the Best Director Oscar (his only Best Director win) for his exquisitely-directed Cabaret - it was his second film as director following his first musical Sweet Charity (1969). His film updated the Kurt Weill-Brecht world of The Threepenny Opera (and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel), as well as borrowed from Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories.

[As an interesting sidenote, Bob Fosse would be nominated two more times as Best Director - in 1974 (for Lenny) and 1979 (for All That Jazz), and both times, Fosse found himself in direct competition against the same Best Director nominee Francis Ford Coppola (for The Godfather, Part II (1974) and Apocalypse Now (1979) ).] The other nominated directors were: John Boorman (with his first of two unsuccessful nominations) for his gripping, breath-taking direction of the shockingly-violent Deliverance Jan Troell for the first part of a two-part epic, The Emigrants (followed by The New Land) Francis Ford Coppola, a representative of the next generation of movie-makers, failed to win in the Best Director category. His three-hour Best Picture epic The Godfather skillfully and artfully brought Mario Puzo's novel to life. One of the film's most oft-quoted lines was: "Luca Brazzi sleeps with the fishes" -- referring to the fate of one of the Corleone family enforcers.

[The film soon became the biggest box-office hit of all time, even surpassing Gone With The Wind (1939) and The Sound of Music (1965) .] For the first time in Academy history, three of the Best Actor and Best Actress nominees were black performers - Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson in Sounder, and Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues. (However, none of the trio of black 'actors' won.) Marlon Brando (with his sixth of eight career nominations) won his second Best Actor Oscar for his definitive screen role as the aged 'Mafia' chief Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather . [Robert DeNiro won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar two years later for playing the same character in a different film - The Godfather, Part II (1974) .] As George C. Scott had done two years earlier, Brando protested the on/off-screen treatment of Native Americans (through alleged American Indian spokeswoman and half native-American Sacheen Littlefeather, president of the Native American Affirmative Image Committee, who was dressed in feathers and buckskin) and declined the award.

[Note: Her birth name was Maria Cruz, a B-film Mexican actress, and she had been named Miss American Vampire 1970. And she would soon afterwards appear in a pictorial in the October 1973 issue of Playboy Magazine.] The two major cast members of Sleuth were also nominated for Best Actor awards: Laurence Olivier (with his eighth of ten career nominations) as the snobbish detective-mystery novelist Andrew Wyke Michael Caine (with his second nomination) as his game-playing adversary Milo Tindle - a hair-salon chain owner who is having an affair with Wyke's estranged wife. [This is only one of three instances when a film's entire cast has been nominated - the other instances were Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) and Give 'em Hell, Harry!

(1975).] Other Best Actor nominees were: Peter O'Toole (with his fifth of eight career nominations) as Jack - the insane 14th Earl of Gurney who believes he's either Jesus Christ or Jack the Ripper in director Peter Medak's satirical, British tragi-comedy cult film, The Ruling Class (the film's sole nomination) Paul Winfield (with his sole nomination) as black sharecropper Nathan Lee Morgan (Cicely Tyson's husband) who is sentenced to jail for stealing food for his family in Sounder Liza Minnelli (with her second and last career nomination) in her fourth adult film role won the Best Actress award for her star-making role in Cabaret as the free-spirited ex-patriate American Sally Bowles - a wild, starry-eyed and 'divinely decadent' singer/dancer in the Kit Kat Club, made memorable with a black bowler, mascara, and suspenders. Some interpreted her win as 'compensation' for the many Oscar losses that her mother, Judy Garland, experienced.

The other Best Actress competitors included two black actresses (a first): Cicely Tyson (with her sole nomination) as sharecropper Rebecca Morgan in Sounder Diana Ross (with her sole nomination for her screen debut) as drug-addicted singing great Billie Holliday in director Sidney Furie's biopic Lady Sings the Blues (with five nominations and no wins) Also nominated were Maggie Smith (with her third nomination) as overbearing Aunt Augusta who travels across Europe in George Cukor's screen version of Graham Greene's comedy novel Travels With My Aunt (with four nominations and one win - Best Costume Design), and Liv Ullmann (with her first of two unsuccessful career nominations) as Swedish emigrant Kristina in The Emigrants. Both winners in the supporting categories were repeating their stage roles on the screen. The winner in the Best Supporting Actor category was the sinister, lewd, sexually-ambiguous and androgynous, sardonic, untrustworthy and impish emcee Joel Grey (with his sole career nomination!) as 'The Master of Ceremonies' in Cabaret - a personification of the decadence and decay in Nazi Germany.

[Grey was reprising his Broadway role in his first film in eleven years.] Three of the co-stars of The Godfather were also nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category - all of them for the first time. [This was record-tying! - this was the first time since On The Waterfront (1954) that three performers from the same film were nominated together]: James Caan (with his first and sole nomination in a break-through role) as the Don's hot-headed, sexy and volatile son Sonny Corleone Al Pacino (with his first of eight career nominations and in his first major film) as intense Michael Corleone - the second son [Coincidentally, Pacino had more on-screen time than Best Actor winner Marlon Brando, and should have been nominated in the Best Actor category instead.] Robert Duvall (with his first of five career nominations and in his break-through role) as Tom Hagen, the Corleone's family's lawyer The last nominee was Eddie Albert (with his second and last unsuccessful career nomination) as Mr.

Corcoran (Cybill Shepherd's father) in director Elaine May's version of Neil Simon's marital comedy, The Heartbreak Kid (with two nominations and no wins). The Best Supporting Actress category included nominees in films which were not major prize winners. The winner in the category was veteran Broadway actress Eileen Heckart (with her second of two career nominations) who recreated her stage role as Mrs. Baker - the concerned, over-possessive, domineering and overbearing San Francisco mother of blind, song-writing son Eddie Albert (who opposes her son's relationship with funky, next-door-neighbor Goldie Hawn) in director Milton Katselas' Butterflies are Free (with three nominations and one win - Best Supporting Actress).

The other Best Supporting Actress nominees were: Jeannie Berlin (with her sole nomination) as Lila Kolodny - the nice Jewish girl (director Elaine May's real-life daughter) who faces abandonment on her honeymoon by husband Charles Grodin in The Heartbreak Kid Geraldine Page (with her fifth of eight career nominations) as Tillie's (Carol Burnett) bitchy friend and matchmaker Gertrude in director Martin Ritt's Pete 'n' Tillie (with two nominations and no wins) Susan Tyrell (with her sole nomination) as Oma - the alcoholic, temporary girlfriend of a boxing contender (Stacey Keach) in director John Huston's Fat City (the film's sole nomination) Shelley Winters (with her fourth and last career nomination) as Belle Rosen - a Jewish grandmother-passenger who saves Gene Hackman's life (and loses her own) in Irwin Allen's all-star cast/disaster film epic The Poseidon Adventure (with eight nominations and two wins - Best Song ('The Morning After') and a Special Achievement Award for Visual Effects!) Never-nominated actor Edward G.

Robinson (1893-1973) received an Honorary statuette posthumously, although he knew of the honor. He had died two months prior to the Oscars show. His widow, Jane Adler, accepted the award for Robinson ("who achieved greatness as a player, a patron of the arts and a dedicated citizen...in sum, a Renaissance man. From his friends in the industry he loves"), and read a speech that Robinson had written upon hearing of his honor a week before his death. He had experienced a memorable film career, in such films as Little Caesar (1930) , Double Indemnity (1944) , and Key Largo (1948). The most unlikely Oscar nomination in the history of the Academy Awards was this year's Best Original Song nomination of "Ben" from the grade-Z horror film Ben about killer rats. The title song was sung by 14 year-old child star Michael Jackson during the end credits and for the Oscar ceremony. The song, which won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song, lost the Oscar to "The Morning After" from The Poseidon Adventure.

Charlie Chaplin's film Limelight (1952) , made twenty years earlier, finally became eligible for Oscar consideration this year. According to the Academy's rules at the time, a movie could not be considered for an Academy Award until it had played in Los Angeles. When Limelight finally played at a theater in Los Angeles in 1972, it became eligible for an award. Chaplin was co-awarded the film's sole Oscar nomination and win - for Best Original Dramatic Score. It was Chaplin's ONLY competitive Academy Award win. Oscar Snubs and Omissions: Like Edward G. Robinson, win-less Rosalind Russell (after four unsuccessful Best Actress nominations in 1942, 1946, 1947, and 1958), accepted the Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Cinematographer Gordon Willis' work on the Best Picture winner, The Godfather , was completely overlooked. His first career nomination occurred almost a decade later for Zelig (1983), and he wasn't honored again until the Academy nominated him a third time - for one of his weakest efforts, The Godfather, Part III (1990) .

Writer/star Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam and his performance as klutsy Bogey-film buff Allan Felix were overlooked in 1972, and so was Jon Voight's performance as Ed and Ned Beatty's role as chubby and assaulted Bobby Trippe in director John Boorman's exciting adventure film Deliverance . Never-nominated Howard Da Silva was ignored for his role as Benjamin Franklin in 1776, as were Alastair Sim (as apoplectic Bishop Lampton) and Arthur Lowe (as drinking butler Daniel Tucker) in The Ruling Class. And two actresses were un-nominated in Peter Bogdanovich's screwball comedy What's Up, Doc?: Madeline Kahn in her film debut as Ryan O'Neal's fiancee Eunice Burns and Barbra Streisand as Judy Maxwell. Stacy Keach should have been nominated for his role as come-back boxer Billy Tully in director John Huston's Fat City. And Robert Redford missed out on nominations for his early roles as political candidate Bill McKay in Michael Ritchie's political satire The Candidate, and as a wilderness mountain man - the title role - in Sydney Pollack's Jeremiah Johnson.

First-rate Michael York was overlooked for his underappreciated role as bisexual British writer and Cambridge doctoral candidate Brian Roberts in Cabaret - a role that enhanced Liza Minnelli's Oscar-winning performance. John Cazale was denied nominations for his two roles as Fredo in Cabaret (1972) - IMDb IMDb There was an error trying to load your rating for this title. Some parts of this page won't work property. Please reload or try later. X Beta I'm Watching This! Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. Error A female girlie club entertainer in Weimar Republic era Berlin romances two men while the Nazi Party rises to power around them.

Director: Bob Fosse Writers: Joe Masteroff (based on the musical play "Cabaret" book by), John Van Druten (based on the play by) | 2 more credits » Stars: From $2.99 (SD) on Amazon Video ON DISC a list of 25 titles created 24 Feb 2011 a list of 47 titles created 28 May 2015 a list of 25 titles created 11 Jan 2016 a list of 31 titles created 9 months ago a list of 40 titles created 4 months ago Search for " Cabaret " on Amazon.com Connect with IMDb Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below. You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Won 8 Oscars. Another 27 wins & 15 nominations. See more awards » Videos Director/choreographer Bob Fosse tells his own life story as he details the sordid life of Joe Gideon, a womanizing, drug-using dancer.

Director: Bob Fosse Two youngsters from rival New York City gangs fall in love, but tensions between their respective friends build toward tragedy. Directors: Jerome Robbins, Robert Wise Stars: Natalie Wood, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer Murderesses Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart find themselves on death row together and fight for the fame that will keep them from the gallows in 1920s Chicago. Director: Rob Marshall Three friends struggle to find work in Paris. Things become more complicated when two of them fall in love with the same woman. Director: Vincente Minnelli Edit Storyline Cambridge University student Brian Roberts arrives in Berlin in 1931 to complete his German studies. Without much money, he plans on making a living teaching English while living in an inexpensive rooming house, where he befriends another of the tenants, American Sally Bowles. She is outwardly a flamboyant, perpetually happy person who works as a singer at the decadent Kit Kat Klub, a cabaret styled venue. Sally's outward façade is matched by that of the Klub, overseen by the omnipresent Master of Ceremonies.

Sally draws Brian into her world, and initially wants him to be one of her many lovers, until she learns that he is a homosexual, albeit a celibate one. Among their other friends are his students, the poor Fritz Wendel, who wants to be a gigolo to live a comfortable life, and the straight-laced and beautiful Natalia Landauer, a Jewish heiress. Fritz initially sees Natalia as his money ticket, but eventually falls for her. However Natalia is suspect of his motives and cannot ... Written by Huggo Did You Know? Trivia The original Broadway production of "Cabaret" opened at the Broadhurst Theater on November 2, 1966, ran for 1165 performances and won the 1967 Tony Award for the Best Musical. Joel Grey recreates his role in the movie for which the won the 1967 Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. See more » Goofs As Max drops off Brian and Sally packs for the African trip, Brian's shirt changes style and colour. In Max's car his shirt is blue with a rounded collar but, by the time he enters the apartment, it is white with a pointed collar.

See more » Quotes [on the pronunciation of "phlegm"] Brian Roberts : P H is always pronounced as F, and, uh, you don't sound the G. Natalia Landauer : Then why are they putting the G, please? Brian Roberts : That's, that's a very good question, but rather difficult to explain. The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1972 | News from the Boston Becks News from the Boston Becks The life and times of Erik, Veronica and Thomas 12 December, 2010 The History of the Academy Awards: Best Picture – 1972 [7] Comments A collage of many great scenes from The Godfather (1972) The 45th Academy Awards for the film year 1972. The nominations were announced on February 12, 1973 and the awards were held on March 27, 1973.

Best Picture: The Godfather Best Eligible Film Not Nominated: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie Best English Language Film Not Nominated: Sleuth Rank (out of 82) Among Best Picture Years: #18 The Race: The Godfather had originally been slated for a December, 1971 release, but it wasn’t going to be finished in time so it was pushed back to March. When it opened, two weeks before the Oscars, it seemed like the conversation already moved to the next year, especially with Bob Fosse’s magnificent Cabaret already in theaters. But The Godfather quickly became a cultural phenomenon, setting box office records for opening night and opening weekend. For the rest of the year, while various films came out to good reviews and strong word-of-mouth and even good box office, nothing could compare to The Godfather, not Deliverance, not Sounder, not Sleuth, nor even the pair of critically acclaimed foreign films: The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Emigrants. It took the first group of awards to finally put a pause on The Godfather.

The National Board of Review did place The Godfather in their Top 10, but their Best Picture and Best Director both went to Cabaret (the first time in 6 years that both awards had gone to the same film). Next up was The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and, like usual, they went foreign, giving their Best Picture and Director to Discreet Charm. The New York Film Critics went with Cries and Whispers, the new Bergman film that wouldn’t even be eligible for the Oscars until the following year for their Best Picture and Director. The Golden Globes finally brought some attention back to The Godfather by giving it 7 nominations, but that was one short of Cabaret‘s 8 noms. But The Godfather would win Picture, Director and Screenplay among its record five wins and take the lead. Taking the next positions with Picture and Director nominations were Deliverance, Avanti and Frenzy. The Directors Guild just confused things, again nominating The Godfather, Cabaret and Deliverance, but putting Sounder and Slaughterhouse-Five in the other two spots.

The Writers Guild didn’t clear it up much, giving awards to both Godfather and Cabaret with nominations for Deliverance, Sounder, Slaughterhouse-Five and Avanti, but with foreign films often not eligible for the guild awards, it wasn’t clearing anything up, other than, with a DGA, WGA and Golden Globe win, The Godfather seemed headed for an Oscar win. The Results: With the initial announcement of the nominations, The Godfather was in the lead with 11. However, soon after it was decided that the score was ineligible as it used too much pre-existing music and it then fell into a tie with Cabaret with 10 nominations. For the first time in the history of the five-nominee era, only two films had more than 4 nominations, so while Deliverance, Sounder and The Emigrants (only the third Foreign film to make it) were nominated for Best Picture, the race was down to The Godfather and Cabaret. The Godfather had the box office figures and was riding the wave of awards wins, but once the ceremony began, Cabaret started racking up the awards.

When Bob Fosse won Best Director, only the second person to win the Oscar while losing the DGA, the tally stood at Cabaret – 7, The Godfather – 0. Then came the writing awards and Godfather finally picked up its first Oscar. But after the lead acting trophies were split, Cabaret was up 8 to 2. But in the end, The Godfather would prove to be the film of the hour, and of all-time, taking home Best Picture. The iconic film poster for the original Best Picture winning The Godfather (1972) The Godfather My Rating: **** My Rank: #1 (year) / #3 (nominees) / #1 (winners) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actor (Brando), Supporting Actor (Pacino), Supporting Actor (Duvall), Supporting Actor (Caan), Supporting Actor (Castellano), Editing, Cinematography, Original Score, Sound, Art Direction, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Costume Design, Makeup, Song (“Speak Softly Love”) Nighthawk Points: 805 The Film: Look at one shot near the end of the film.

We have just witnessed one of the greatest displays of editing in the history of film – the back and forth between the baptism and the killing of the heads of the five families. Now, Michael is coming to the house to deal with Carlo – his brother-in-law and the man responsible for the death of his older brother. Michael stands there and the light falls upon him from the window. One side of his head is in the light. The other half is perfectly covered in darkness. It is one of the single greatest shots in the history of cinema. This is the heart of the film – the light of Kay and a life away from the family that Michael was striving towards and the life of darkness, inherited from his father, the inheritance that he now claims, and when the film ends with those haunting words “Don Corleone” and the final shot is of his wife having the door shut upon her, the darkness has completely claimed him. There are film classics like Citizen Kane and Raging Bull that we look back upon and wonder how the hell they lost Best Picture. Then there are classics like Lawrence of Arabia and Schindler’s List, which were obvious from day one that they were destined for Oscar gold.

But then there are two of the most interesting choices in Academy history: Casablanca and The Godfather. They are widely acknowledged as two of the greatest choices, if not the greatest choices in Oscar history (how wide that acknowledgment is is shown in the rare agreement between the Top 1000, AFI and the voters on the IMDb – the Top 1000 ranks them 1st and 3rd among the winners, the AFI ranks them first and second and the IMDb ranks them first and sixth). But if you look at the race going into the Oscars, neither one was assured of anything. Casablanca had only the third most nominations, was facing off against three different films that had won Best Picture from the critics groups, was behind The Song of Bernadette in wins going into Best Picture and though it had won Best Director, four of the previous eight Best Director winners had failed to win Best Picture.

Likewise, The Godfather had tied Cabaret for the most nominations, but had failed to win Best Picture from one of the critics groups, had already become the second film to win the DGA and not win the Oscar for Best Director and had only two Oscars to Cabaret‘s eight going into the final award (in fact, because Best Director was given out before the writing and lead acting awards, at one point Cabaret had seven Oscars and The Godfather had zero). What, today, seem like two of the most obvious choices in Oscar history were anything but safe bets going into the actual award. Now go back to that shot again. Think of the baptism / killings dichotomy. Think of the performance of Robert Duvall as he informs Tessio of his fate. Think of the performance of Al Pacino as he makes things clear to Carlo. Thing of the amazing cinematography in that shot. Think of the magnificent sets that all of these scenes have taken place in. Now remember this: Duvall and Pacino both lost to Joel Grey. Cabaret beat The Godfather for Best Editing. Nether the perfect cinematography of Gordon Willis nor the brilliant art direction was even nominated.

The Godfather, one of the most magnificent films ever made on a technical level, brilliantly constructed from the ground up, failed to win a single technical Oscar. It’s a good thing that the Academy as a whole came through for the film because it didn’t actually do all that well at the Oscars. Do I need to include a plot summary? A description of how good the film is, how well constructed? Do I need to mention that it takes an enjoyable novel – not great literature, but a very good read – and turns it into a masterpiece? Explain how Al Pacino wins the Nighthawk Award for Best Supporting Actor – one of the greatest performances in the history of the category – because the Oscars couldn’t grasp what the Golden Globes and the National Society of Film Critics could – that Pacino is, in fact, the lead? Do I need to mention that the script is so full of perfect lines, not just the lines themselves, but the way they are delivered, that the annotated screenplay has an entire page titled “Index of Memorable Lines” so you can look them up and find them?

From the beginning of the film (“I believe in America”) straight to the end (“Don Corleone”), every moment is memorable – whether it be the wit of “Leave the gun. Take the cannolis.”, the brilliance of Sonny’s death, the dark menace of “My father made him an offer he couldn’t refuse” or the sheer horror of the horse’s head. But if you don’t know all this, if you haven’t seen the film, then you wouldn’t be reading all of this. For any love of film must encompass at the very least, seeing certain films and there is no question that The Godfather is right at the top of that list.

winner of 8 Oscars, but not Best Picture: Bob Fosse's Cabaret Cabaret Writer: Jay Presson Allen (from the musical by Joe Asteroff, based on the play I Am a Camera by John Van Druten, based on the stories by Christopher Isherwood) Producer: Cy Feuer Studio: Allied Artists Stars: Liza Minnelli, Michael York, Joel Grey Oscar Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Minnelli), Supporting Actor (Grey), Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Art Direction, Score Adaptation Oscar Record: Most wins without winning Best Picture (8) Oscar Points: 510 Box Office Gross: $41.32 mil (#7 – 1972) Release Date: 13 February 1972 My Rating: **** My Rank: #3 (year) / #132 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Actress (Minnelli), Supporting Actor (Grey), Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Art Direction, Costume Design, Makeup, Song (“Money”), Song (“Mein Herr”) Nighthawk Points: 380 The

 Film: I have had a strange journey with this film.

I first saw it in 8th grade, when we watched parts of it in history class, focusing on the rise of the Nazis in the film. I saw the brilliance in Minnelli’s performance but I couldn’t really connect to the film. I wasn’t that thrilled by the songs and the film didn’t really draw me in (though I always remembered the lines “Screw Max.” “I do.” “So do I.”). Then, eight years later I saw the musical on stage when it was performed at my university, with several of my friends in it. It seemed very different. While you still had the obvious rise of the Nazis, from the early scenes, to the song “The Future Belongs to Me” to the way they populate the Kit-Kat Club at the end, it didn’t seem like the musical I remembered. There seemed to be more of a story, more songs, more light-heartedness.

Of course, I hadn’t realized that they are in fact, very different, that when Fosse brought it to the screen he cut many of the songs, cut away entirely from the sub-plot about the landlady and the Jewish grocer and focused much more on Sally (even some of her songs were cut, as “Tomorrow Belongs to Me” was the only remaining song that didn’t take place in the Kit-Kat Club). A couple of years later I taped the film and watched it again. I had seen All That Jazz in the intervening years and was impressed by what Fosse had done. I knew that Coppola absolutely should have won the Oscar, but it no longer seemed so out of place that Fosse won, for his direction is the heart and soul of the film. There is possibly no film musical made from a stage musical that bears more of an imprint from its director than Cabaret. Watching it again this time, I wasn’t as impressed by the film as a whole.

Fosse’s direction is magnificent, Minnelli’s performance is flawless and if Joel Grey shouldn’t have won the Oscar and indeed finishes third in my awards (behind Pacino and Duvall), his is still one of the best third-place performances in the history of the category. (That is not mere hyperbole – the only performances I rank third that I feel are better are two other Oscar winners who gave performances worthy of their Oscar, but whom, I felt were bettered by others in their year – George Sanders in All About Eve, finishing behind Erich von Stroheim in Sunset Boulevard and Orson Welles in The Third Man and Javier Bardem in No Country for Old Men, finishing behind Tom Wilkinson in Michael Clayton and Tommy Lee Jones in No Country.) It is also extremely well-made on every level and again, if I don’t give it my awards, it usually is finishing in second place behind one of the greatest films ever made, so there is no shame in that. The art direction, cinematography, costumes and sound are all superb. So what is it that keeps it out of the range of the truly greatest films of all-time? I would have to say that it’s the script and the story.

Make no mistake, this is a better film than it would have been if they filmed the original musical, with all the songs – for those songs are too light for this film and the subplot is kind of distracting – but then again, the subplot they did put in is also kind of distracting. The strength of the film lies not in the relationship between Sally and Brian, but in Sally and her appearances in the nightclub and the growth of the Nazi party. There is a certain aura of malevolence in the emcee, but Sam Mendes did Fosse one step better when he staged it in London almost thirty years later by taking the emcee and having him appear at the end in the costume of a homosexual in a concentration camp. Cabaret is a musical like no other, in the darkness of its vision. It is not of the school of bright colors and fun songs like My Fair Lady and The Sound of Music. It takes West Side Story and one-ups it for sheer descent down into darkness, with both music and atmosphere and Fosse makes it a film to remember. Do you hear the banjos?

Deliverance My Rank: #5 (year) / #183 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Picture, Director, Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Sound Editing Nighthawk Points: 185 The Film: What is a horror film? When film began, and certainly during the era where it was transitioning to sound, horror was all about the supernatural monsters – Dracula, Frankenstein, Mr. Hyde, The Mummy. In more recent years, that seems to have been supplanted by an urge to make films about slashing killers, the less realistic, the more likely to earn a big number on Friday night and then fade quickly. But what about films that show the true depths of the horror of mankind? To me, the three greatest horror films of all-time are what I classify as “urban horror”, in which we see the depths of mankind and what people will do to themselves. Those three, of course, are A Clockwork Orange, Taxi Driver and Trainspotting. But then there is a different kind of horror: rural horror.

In one very real sense, the more exaggerated kind of horror films like The Last House on the Left and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre would belong to this genre. But the real crowning jewel of this would be Deliverance, for not only is the violence the most realistic, but it quite simply is a better film than almost anything else that could come to mind. The character played by Burt Reynolds in the film would have you believe that this is all about man vs. nature. But really this film is about man vs. himself. It’s an interesting sidenote in John Boorman’s career. Boorman is a great director and that was evident from his very early films, but in the seventies, something truly horrible seemed to happen to his film attempts and we ended up with films like Zardoz and The Exorcist II. But in the middle of all of that we also got Deliverance. By now, most people associate two things with Deliverance: the dueling banjos (which is incorrectly named, as Ronnie Cox is playing a guitar) and the rape scene. But there is more than that. I think back to my college roommate.

He lived way the hell out in the middle of nowhere along the Columbia River, in an area in which the fog rolled in every night. When he first directed me on a drive around the area he kept humming the Dueling Banjos music. Most of his neighbors were uneducated, most of them were dirt poor and the next door neighbor had murdered some people with an axe and was due out on parole before too long. Though Deliverance takes place in Georgia, it could easily have come from any number of different areas in the country. It marks the stark divide between those who think they have made civilization and those who make their living in the only form of civilization they have ever known. It is well written, very well directed, very well made (the only technical nomination it received was for Editing, which is absurd since its Cinematography was passed over in favor of Butterflies are Free and “1776”) and well acted. Amazingly enough, this was the first film appearance of Ned Beatty and it was the role that essentially turned Burt Reynolds into a superstar.

And through it all it is anchored by Jon Voight in a very good performance that was nothing like the roles by which most people had known him up to that point – Joe Buck and Milo Minderbinder. Jan Troell succeeds where Bergman had yet to - getting his film (The Emigrants) nominated for Best Picture The Emigrants (Utvandrarna) My Rank: #6 (year) / #258 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Actor (Von Sydow), Actress (Ullmann), Cinematography, Costume Design, Foreign Film Nighthawk Points: 130 The Film: So here we have a Swedish film, nominated for Best Foreign Film, nominated for Best Picture and Director, starring Max Von Sydow and Liv Ullmann and it isn’t a Bergman film. Were they trying to poke Bergman with a stick? Saying, hey, we know you’ve done some of the most magnificent films in all of film history, but we’re going to pass you over and nominate Jan Troell instead? Well, no, not really, even if it feels this way. There are two reasons we know that.

The first is that Bergman himself was nominated for Best Director the following year for his Best Picture nominated Cries and Whispers. The second is that this film is much more of a fit for the more middle-brow audiences of the Academy than any Bergman film (Bergman won three Best Foreign Film awards but never actually won an Oscar and Foreign Film and the other categories have different voting audiences). In spite of the presence of Von Sydow and Ullmann, this is really nothing like a Bergman film. Bergman’s films are dark meditations on the very meanings of life, death, faith, sex, love, pain. This isn’t much of a meditation at all. It’s a journey. We have a group of outcasts, who are forced away from their native Sweden for various reasons, some because of faith, some because of poverty. But they band together to make the long journey to America in the middle of the nineteenth century, eventually finding themselves setting in Minnesota (there is even a sequel called The New Land that deals with more of their story). The film is filled with lush cinematography, from the cold, desolate Swedish lands, to the green filled fields and forests of the America that they find.

There are strong performances from everyone in the film, though, of course, it is Von Sydow and Ullmann who are really the stand-outs. It is a very American story, the immigrant experience, and similar to another mostly over-looked Best Picture nominee, America America (neither is available on DVD). It is perfect fare for the Academy and after getting passed over for Best Foreign Film the year before (to Garden of the Finzi-Continis, which really is a better film), it somehow managed to sneak into the competition in a rather strange year (the sequel was nominated the same year for Best Foreign Film – submitted by Sweden rather than Bergman’s Cries and Whispers which would earn a Best Picture nomination the next year). Sounder (1972) - the little film that could Sounder My Rank: #25 (year) / #295 (nominees) Nighthawk Nominations: Actress (Tyson) Nighthawk Points: 35 The Film: It had been a long time since I had watched Sounder, and I went in expecting it to be like The Yearling or Old Yeller, the experience of the poor young farmer boy with a pet.

But really, that’s not what this film is about and the name doesn’t really fit. The Yearling and Old Yeller both dealt with young boys who grew because of their attachment to the animal. Sounder is simply the family dog. This boy is going to grow no matter what, because this is life that is teaching him, not a relationship with an animal. The key here is the genre. This is not a kids film. Sure, it is a great film for kids to watch, especially for any kid hooked into all the technology today and still wants more. It is a good reminder, not only of what life used to be like not all that long ago, but what life is still like for many people outside the United States and some still inside. It starts with a fun little chase of a raccoon, with father, son and family dog all running along, but when you realize that they need to shoot that raccoon or they might not have anything to eat for the night, well, then your opinion can change. Is Sounder one of the five best films of 1972?

No, especially when you realize that it lost out on a Best Director nomination to Sleuth (a much better film) and it was nominated over The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. But it is a good film, one that convincingly portrays a poor black sharecropping family in the South, the things they must do in order to keep food on the table and the ties that bind between them. In a lot of films, the father would fight against the son trying to keep him out of school. But this father knows that his way of life is limited and that his son has a chance for something better, so he fights against his son to make him go to a school that will get him a little ahead in life. Not a lot, but every little bit counts. Every little bit counts in the film as well, for it is well directed, well written and has two very good performances at the heart of it – those of Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson, and if I don’t nominate Winfield for my awards, well, that is not to say that he wasn’t good because he was – they both were. They are convincing in every scene and in a film like this that sometimes can be the hardest thing.

Share this: Cabaret (film) | LGBT Info | Fandom powered by Wikia Sally Bowles and the MC Perform "Money Makes the World Go 'Round" Sally befriends a rich playboy baron named Maximilian von Heune, who takes them to his country estate. It becomes ambiguous over which of the duo Max is seducing, which is epitomized by a central scene in which the three dance intimately together in a wine-induced reverie. Max eventually loses interest with the two, and leaves them back in Berlin. It is then revealed that he had slept with not only Sally, but Brian as well. After the ensuing argument, Brian storms off and picks a fight with a group of Nazis, who proceed to beat him senseless. Brian and Sally make up in the hospital, where Sally reveals that Max has left them an envelope of money. Later on, Sally finds out that she's pregnant and she's unsure of whether Brian or Max is the father. Brian offers to marry her and take her back to his university life in Cambridge. Sally realizes they could never coexist in such a life, and goes ahead with a planned abortion. The film ends with Brian departing for England by train, and Sally continuing her life in Berlin.

The club's (unnamed) master of ceremonies is seen only in his stage persona, but provides repeated knowing looks to the camera that the party is about to end. A brief sequence which might be Sally's reminiscence or fantasy indicates that she had sexual relations with him at some time, or alternately that she fantasies of having such. A subplot concerns a Jewish man, Fritz Wendel, who had been passing as a Christian, who falls for and marries Natalia Landauer, a wealthy Jewish heiress. Although they marry, we are left wondering what their ultimate fate will be. Differences in film from stage version Edit To accommodate Minnelli, Sally Bowles is Americanized , with far more talent than the original character possessed. The character of Cliff Bradshaw was renamed Brian Roberts. To make the action more realistic and believable when removed from the stage, Fosse cut all the book songs that advanced the plot, leaving only the songs that are sung within the confines of the Kit Kat Klub.

(The one exception to this is "Tomorrow Belongs to Me," which is sung in a beer garden.) Kander and Ebb wrote several new songs for the movie and removed others; "Don't Tell Mama" was replaced by "Mein Herr" and "Sitting Pretty" (retained in various instrumental versions) by "Money, Money" (better known as "Money Makes the World Go Round"). Several characters were cut (including Herr Schultz, with Fraulein Schneider's part greatly reduced) and several from Isherwood's original stories put back in. The entire score was re-orchestrated, with all the numbers being accompanied by the stage band.

The score Willkommen - performed by the Emcee and the Cabaret Girls Mein Herr - performed by Sally Bowles Tiller Girls - performed by the Emcee and the Cabaret Girls Maybe This Time - performed by Sally Bowles Money, Money - performed by the Emcee and Sally Bowles Two Ladies - performed by the Emcee and by two of the Cabaret Girls Tomorrow Belongs To Me - sung by Mark Lambert If You Could See Her - performed by the Emcee and someone in a gorilla suit (Life is a) Cabaret - performed by Sally Bowles Trivia Edit Brian expresses surprise that Sally Bowles is an American, a sly reference to the fact that in the musical on which the movie is based, Sally is British. The song "Married", originally in the Broadway version, was cut from the movie. It can be heard playing on a radio in the background during the scene where Brian and Sally are discussing marriage, sung in German (the title thus becoming "Heirat".) The song "Sitting Pretty," replaced in the film by "Money", can also be heard several times coming from record players, including the scene in which Sally and Brian first go to Max's house.

In an interview given at the time of the film's release, Liza Minnelli said you could tell she was the star of the cabaret the movie is set in because she's the only performer with shaved armpits. Cabaret has the distinction of winning the most Oscars (eight) without "Best Picture" (which went to The Godfather). Both Billy Wilder and Gene Kelly turned down the offer to direct the project before it was accepted by Bob Fosse. Liza Minnelli designed all her own hair and make-up with the help of her father, famed musical director Vincente Minnelli. In preparation for his revival of the role of the Emcee in the film, Joel Grey did extensive research in order to achieve a completely authentic German accent. "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" was written by John Kander and Fred Ebb as a pastiche of the rousing German patriotic songs of the period (Die Wacht am Rhein [1] and the Horst Wessel Lied [2] , for instance). Sung by a stereotypical Hitler Youth, it often has been mistaken for genuine. This has led to the songwriters (both Jewish, incidentally) being accused of anti-Semitism.

Speculation continues about the actual singer of "Tomorrow Belongs to Me". Apparently, Bob Fosse's biography states that the song was recorded for the film by Broadway singer/actor, Mark Lambert. Lambert is said to have refused to dye his hair blond for filming so - in one of the film's most powerful scenes - a young German extra stood in for him and mimed the song on camera. Books that inspired the film The Berlin Stories: The Last of Mr. Norris and Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood 1945 Sally Bowles by Christopher Isherwood 1937 The Berlin of Sally Bowles by Christopher Isherwood 1975

Question: Which 1972 movie musical has the distinction of winning the most Oscars (eight) without winning the Best Picture award?
Answer: Cabaret